Wikileaks founder Julian Assange walks free from UK prison, leaves for Australia

NEW YORK: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s long ordeal ended on Tuesday after a UK court freed him from prison, allowing the long-incarcerated journalist to travel to his native Australia. The decision from the court comes after Assange pleaded guilty to a single charge of breaching the espionage law in the United States.

Julian Assange has been in London's Belmarsh Prison since April 2019. The US had accused Assange of leaking vital security information through his news portal WikiLeaks. The US considered publishing these details as a threat to national security.

Assange gained global attention after leaking details of United States military rampage in Afghanistan and Iraq. By the end of 2010, WikiLeaks released more than 300,000 pages of documents and even video visuals that showed the military gunning down civilians from a helicopter. The victims also included two Reuters journalists. By 2010, WikiLeaks released 250,000 classified cables from different countries embassies in the US. This created a huge uproar and a diplomatic crisis ensued. With this, the United States started efforts to declare Assange as an enemy and capture him officially.

America, Australia, China and many other countries have banned WikiLeaks. Moreover, Facebook and online financial portals like Visa and Mastercard have implemented service bans against WikiLeaks. Assange, who has sought asylum in many countries, was arrested in April 2019 from the Ecuadorian embassy by the London police. He faces 17 counts of espionage in the US.